Puppet Head Assembly with Patterns

 Once the eyes for the puppets have been prepared, the construction of a head assembly to house the eye and mouth animations, connected to a control device, must be accomplished. Sounds complicated and it is to a degree. This is the simplest and least labor intensive method I have been able to come up with.
Several parts must be cut from lightweight pine, glued and fastened together with through-holes drilled to allow the controlling cables to run smoothly. I mill my own wooden pieces to thickness using an ordinary table saw and then cut out the individual parts with the use of a fine electric scroll saw. (TIP: Don't skimp on good quality blades for the scroll saw and change the blade OFTEN. The tighter and sharper the blade, the truer the cuts, especially circles and rounded back cuts. Spend a bit more money and a bit more time and save yourself a lot of heartache!)

 Here is where a good set of preliminary sketches really pay off. Done correctly they act as blueprints to guide you through the process of creating patterns. I use a medium weight card and draw out each pattern, cutting this out with Xacto knife and scissors and checking for fit against the sketches before starting to cut any of the wooden parts.

 Here the control handle with central support dowel and lateral finger-control dowel is shown. The controller must fit naturally within the palm of the hand to give support to the head while both thumb and forefinger are free to control the animations without hinderance. I spent a good deal of time with this handle pattern to include grooves for the three fingers gripping it. The puppeteer will be able to slip their hand inside the back of the puppet and grasp the controller with ease, ready in a moment to perform.
Remember that no matter how beautiful your finished puppet may be, if the puppeteer has trouble operating it because you neglected to fit the controls to their hands it will never perform as beautifully as it should.

These preliminary patterns underwent some revision as the assembly process went forward. This is natural and should not lead to frustration for the puppet builder. This process is organic and must work for each puppet you make. What works for one won't necessarily work for the next. All four of these puppets, since they will appear together on stage, are based on the same model, and yet each character is distinct with it's own look and mannerisms. My next post will show how the eye animations are constructed and the final assembly of all these patterns into a working puppet head armature.